Electric Problems, Near Miss??

[bill.sibu]

With all the conversation about the Bluebirds catching on fire recently, we got
our own wake up call yesterday. We are workamping and have not had our coach on
the road for 6 weeks but yesterday, we dropped the 110v line on the left side of
our coach. After checking power in, and the gfci in that circuit, we discovered
that breakers in the box WERE ok, but still no power at the ground fault. We did
a wire around and got the circuit back up, but obviously a broken wire some
place and we have not yet discovered where. After much head scratching, this is
where we are now. We are getting no voltage at the inverter control panel. We
discovered that the inverter was not putting out and our batteries were not
charging. We have had a problem with the transfer switch before but on checking
it, it looked ok. As a precaution to make sure, we disconnected the land line
and started the generator. That worked. Batteries got charged, upon shutting
down the generator, reconnecting the land line, everything looked good. The VIP
"smart box" agreed that everything looked good and allowed the power into the
coach. The transfer switch engaged and within seconds there was a smell of smoke
and crackling noise coming from the inverter/charger, lasting about 15 or 20
seconds. Inspection this morning revealed no visible wiring problems, but as we
opened the inverter box it appeared that something had leaked from a capacitor?
and that it seemed that at least 3 diodes were fried.
AND THAT IS WHERE WE ARE NOW. HELP!!

We realize there is better technology out there than our Freedom 25. Please give
us your thoughts on Inverter/Charger as opposed to Individual components. What
Brands and where to buy,or any other fixes or suggestions you could offer us.



Bill Helland
95BMC37
Currently workamping in Nevada, MO